Holy smokes. Did I read right?

JIMNLIN wrote:
The 30k tow rating was new in the '13 models along with a 37500 GCWR and 14k GVWR with those big 9750 RAWR.

Dodge woke up to the fact commerce uses these truck operating legally at those GVW and GCW anyway.

IMO good marketing strategy.

Jim is dead on,

With all new frame, medium duty transmission option, front and rear suspension along with dual radiators and on and on with changes and upgrades, the 2013 Ram 3500 Dually is worlds apart from the 2012 Ram dually comparing apples to apples.

The 14' has same GVWR and GCWR as the 13' from what I can tell, but offers a few more options as Rick mentioned that aren't on the 13'...but weights are the same, unless something changed in the last couple day's that I'm not aware of.

2oldman wrote:

blt2ski wrote:
For me, tow rating would include moving the total load up a 30% grade, The new tow specs from the SAE only have a min 12% grade you need to be able to go up. That is less grade than my driveway.

Whaa.. is your driveway 30%? I don't think you'll find such a monster grade on any road you'd have any business on in this country.

I'm on a clients 24% grade a few times a month on Queen Anne Hill/avenue in seattle. I have another client with a 33% grade on Lk Washington for 100 yds or so. Built a set of 6" rise x 18" tread steps up the side!

Was on another 20-22% grade per the sign in south King county a few weeks back. I see 15-18% grade signs thru out the area on a daily basis driving around. For those of us that have to drive these local hills, 12% is a nothing grade! as noted by another, rather soft, so the OEM's can have LARGE tow ratings. If one has to use there rigs in construction as I do, off road, 12% is nothing more than a shallow to low med grade hill to go up! I've had to run my bobcat up some 50-60% grades to get material up it. Even 45 degree's which is 100% upon occasion. One now that I think about, was over 1-1, probably 1.5-1 or 150% grade. Not that one will get a truck up that per say......

Hence why for me, 30% would be minumum! Need a few % points available for fudge. Along with depending upon the road type, one may not get to 30% if you are going up say green ashpalt, as it has more stick to it than cured concrete. Along with a given rig will need a few more HP to motovate yourself on a green asphalt grade than cured concrete. Gravel also needs more HP to move a given load down it! Bias ply tires use more HP than std radials, and 60-70 series radials use less HP than 75-85 series radials! Then depending upon the wind resistance of a given load, one may need upwards of 30% more or less than your base load!

Hence why in reality, one SHOULD have a hard time figuring out how much HP/Torque or low gearing one needs to properly tow a given trailer. I used to get better mpg pulling 18K down the road than I did 15K lbs of total truck and trailer. The 18K rig had low wind resistance, my TT on the other hand, used about 30 more HP at 60 mph than my 18K rig towing a bobcat! Hence why I got better mpg with the bobcat than my TT!

More to this game than ratings frankly!

marty

blt2ski wrote:
For me, tow rating would include moving the total load up a 30% grade, The new tow specs from the SAE only have a min 12% grade you need to be able to go up. That is less grade than my driveway.

Whaa.. is your driveway 30%? I don't think you'll find such a monster grade on any road you'd have any business on in this country.

bl2ski wrote:
For me, tow rating would include moving the total load up a 30% grade, The new tow specs from the SAE only have a min 12% grade you need to be able to go up

I get the impression these 'standards' have been deliberately left soft for the OEM's. To make the pickups do what they claim to do, would require a substantial redesign of the vehicles.

45Ricochet wrote:

2oldman wrote:
Is that the 3500? They are packing some big power in a small space, but there are other factors like transmission, ride comfort, fuel capacity and brakes.

Actually to get that number you have to spend $2600 for the medium duty Aisin transmission. The MY 14 3500 you can even order air bags on the rear with the really light leaf spring for non towing ride comfort.

That is the one we are going to get a group buy on this fall!

Maybe even NC!

As jim says, from an LEO/CVEO stand point the manufactures ratings are not enforced! So might as well warranty the rigs as to how they are used etc!

Then the std for tow ratings......again, that is a person somewhere saying they want this truck to do this, if they can build it to do that, then it is rated for it, if it is not able to do the spec, then it is not rated for it.

For me, tow rating would include moving the total load up a 30% grade, The new tow specs from the SAE only have a min 12% grade you need to be able to go up. That is less grade than my driveway. So I would need to lower the specs how much? The tow specs do not give me a conversion to know what I would need to have to achieve those results. The new supposed tow ratings are limited to 80# of frontal area. MOST med to larger 5ws, are in the 90-120# range. So as Ford did in the mid 90's, they had max tow ratings that were reduced after you hit 80# of FA, 81-100 was deducted by 2500 lbs, 101-120 was deducted an addition 2500 lbs or 5000 total. So the dodge specs would only be good to 30K if you had a trailer no bigger than 80# of FA< if you had a LARGE front bedroom slide 5w, you would be limited to 25K lbs lbs, or gcwr less 5K from a smaller frontal area trailer.......

More than one way to skin a cat frankly!

Marty

robsouth wrote:
I was unaware that there were any 2014 "Dodge" trucks. What am I missing here?

LOL
I guess nothing but they are taking orders on the MY2014. IIRC the line starts up in a couple of weeks. Shortest model year I can remember was the 2013's :B Just a side note, I also read the "long hauler" is a go also.

Unfortunately there is still no standard used to rate towing capacity as the manufactures know existing trucks are over rated.
30,000 lbs behind a pickup truck is foolhardy.


Pickup truck towing standard isn't standard

ib516 wrote:
Yup, you read that right.

My question is what would the ride be like towing at maximum specifications?

The air bags would be a big improvement. I'm thinking that would be in the $4,000 range.

With the big Cummins diesel and the biggest auto tranny, probably looking at 60-65k. And waiting in line!